It is said by one source that a second Realtime World squad working on another game, Project Myworld, “was told that [all its] budget had been spent on APB.”

Poor management was again a source for blame, in line with a number of comments dotted across Develop Online in the last two weeks.

Says one source: “The middle management – and there was a lot of middle management at this company – were on that game for years and they continued to run it as though they were managing an architecture project or something.

“Fun never seemed to be a criterion for what they were doing; managers with little clipboards would go around and tick off things, saying ‘OK that’s done’ and moving on. There was never any consideration for whether or not what had been done was any fun.”

“If we're being brutally honest, we didn't pay enough attention to the design of the game. When you're working for someone like Dave [Jones, co-founder], it's all too easy to not believe what your ears and eyes, and QA and beta testers are telling you.”